Snowboarding in the backcountry entails snowboarding on ungroomed snow, for example, snowboarding on terrain not owned or maintained by a professional organization, or not groomed for snow sports using heavy equipment. Typically, backcountry snowboarders must use their own physical power to ascend a mountain on foot because conventional ski lifts are not available in the backcountry. However, ascending a mountain on foot in the snow is time-consuming and physically exhausting. Certain equipment, such as snow shoes or cross-country skis, may mitigate the difficulties of ascending a mountain on foot. However, such equipment is heavy, bulky, and difficult to transport when the user snowboards down the mountain.
Conventional splitboards are snowboards that can function in uphill mode or downhill mode. In uphill mode, splitboards break into two sections that can be used like cross country skis to facilitate a backcountry snowboarder's travel up a mountain. Once ascent is complete, the two sections of the splitboard can be clipped together with specialized connection hardware to convert the splitboard into downhill mode, enabling the user to snowboard down the mountain.
Conventional splitboards function as two separate skis that bind together at two connection points to form a snowboard. However, these skis still function separately of each other in downhill mode. As the snowboarder travels downhill, the skis flex against each other everywhere except the two connection points. Such flexing creates high and low points in the middle of the splitboard that catch the snow and cause unpredictable movements, loss of control, and inconsistent flex patterns. As a result, the conventional splitboards ride in an inconsistent fashion. In addition, flexing of skis creates shear forces that cause the connection hardware to vibrate. Such vibration may cause the connection hardware to fail unexpectedly by becoming loose or separating completely during use in downhill mode.